Word: shopian
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Indian security forces, who pretty much run Srinagar on their own - they have wide powers to shoot, arrest and search without fear of repercussions - while Indian and Pakistani politicians and bureaucrats ponder their next moves. The recent rape and murder of two young girls in the town of Shopian, allegedly by Indian soldiers, is the latest outrage. Bashir Dabla, a professor of sociology at Kashmir University who has studied the social impact of the 20-year conflict, says that young people feel abandoned as the issue drags on: "This has given the impression among Kashmiri youth that both these countries...
...opposition has been quick to point out the government's failings in dealing with the crisis. Former chief minister and leader of opposition People's Democratic Party (PDP), Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, says the official "mishandling" of the Shopian incident caused its escalation. Some Kashmir watchers also say that the chief minister's early response to the Shopian incident - that there was no evidence of foul play and that the women had likely drowned - got him into trouble. That statement was apparently based on early police information that the autopsy revealed no marks of violence on the dead bodies...
...rape and alleged murder of two young Muslim women. The corpses of 17-year-old Aasiya Jan and her sister-in-law, Nilofar Shakeel, 22, were found floating in a shallow stream on May 30, hours after their disappearance from their family's apple orchards in the city of Shopian in Indian Kashmir. Locals have alleged that Indian soldiers from a military encampment in the neighborhood were involved in the violent acts, reigniting separatist calls in the Muslim-majority region. At least one protester was killed and more than 300 people have been wounded in pitched street battles between angry...
...tough law called the Public Safety Act and shifted to jails outside the Valley. Several hundred average "troublemakers" have also been put behind the bars in the much-criticized sweep by police. Kashmir's chief minister Omar Abdullah has defended the action. "They took advantage of the tragic Shopian incident and plunged people into further misery," he told the Greater Kashmir newspaper...
...relative peace that has come to Kashmir in recent years, anti-India sentiment still runs deep in predominantly Muslim Indian state. Some separatist leaders continue to seek full independence for the state; others a plebiscite to determine whether Kashmir should fall under Indian or Pakistani rule. Incidents like the Shopian deaths often lead high-voltage clashes between the region's residents and Indian security forces. Abdullah, Kashmir's chief, admits that absolute peace and normalcy will evade the region unless a sustained peace dialogue takes place within the state and between New Delhi and Islamabad. "New Delhi ought to talk...